


Chocolates

by WahlBuilder



Category: Mars: War Logs, The Technomancer (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Autistic Technomancers, Brotherly Love, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Post-Canon, Technomantic Culture, Worldbuilding, twenty headcanons in a trench coat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 17:28:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17646809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WahlBuilder/pseuds/WahlBuilder
Summary: Sean seems to like three things: rooftops, chocolates and conversations about things Roy is conflicted about.





	Chocolates

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Modlisznik](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Modlisznik/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Chocolates](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15876090) by [Modlisznik](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Modlisznik/pseuds/Modlisznik). 



> M, you know our refrain: They Should Be Brothers.

Roy finds Sean on a rooftop, sprawled on his back, a leg bent at the knee. Looking at the stars.

‘Do you like Noctis?’

Stars are so easy to see in Noctis. Noctians compare them to the spilt salt.

Noctis doesn’t hide from the stars. They are the eyes of the Black Hands.

Roy sits down on the roof. It is tiled and pleasantly warm, and he strokes the slightly chipped ceramics. ‘I do. And you like the Valley more.’

‘It is not Ophir.’

It isn’t, he imagines.

He takes a small red box out of his pocket and puts in on Sean’s chest. ‘I’ve new intelligence on you from your fathers.’

Sean raises a brow, sits up, and opens the box cautiously.

Roy turns away, _very_ interested in the rotation of the wind turbines of the wind farm opposite of them.

‘I need to have a serious talk with Connor,’ Sean grumbles.

Sean himself certainly wouldn’t call it grumbling if asked, but Roy would call it precisely that. But judging by the crunch, Sean doesn’t intend to reject the chocolates.

‘Want one?’

He snorts, resting his chin on his knee. ‘Just one? Very generous, brother.’

‘Not getting even one, then.’

‘They are all yours.’

Another crunch.

Roy marks it on his mental list of things Sean likes.

‘Roy? What is a Conduit?’

One of the things in that list: trying to catch people off-guard.

‘Spiritually? Organisationally?’

‘Physically. Is there any difference from other Technomancers?’

He shrugs. ‘You and I _are_ different.’

‘Obviously.’

‘No, I mean, genetically. In short, a Conduit has unlimited carrying capacity, no outer contour and no limits to the field.’

Rustling behind him. He glances over his shoulder: Sean is sprawled on his back again, the box cradled to his chest.

‘I understand the last one, but the first two? Please, in layperson terms?’

‘They are— Wait, have you just made another “you are monk” joke?’

Sean sniggers. It’s un-Sean-like, but very alive, and Roy kicks him in the shins. Sean twists away, pulls at his arm, and Roy lets momentum carry him.

They wrestle on the rooftop, five levels above the ground, infinity below the stars.

He ends up on his back, with his head in Sean’s lap, Sean leaning on his stretched arms on the roof, his breathing heavy with laughter. ‘So… The capacity thing,’ Sean manages.

Stars wink at them from above.

He doesn’t want to talk about it (he’s a freak), but the question has been asked, and should be honoured with an answer.

‘Unlimited carrying capacity means that a Conduit can store as much Fluid—charge, if you will—as they want.’

‘I got that, too.’ Sean touches his connectors.

Roy thinks that the gesture is meant to be reassuring, for the both of them. An acknowledgement that they share the bond of Technomancy, no matter what.

‘But is it physically possible?’

‘It is.’ The proof is lying across his lap, Roy doesn’t point out. ‘And the other thing…’ He frowns. He was never good at unrehearsed conversations. ‘The inner contour is the arrangement, the grid, across which your Fluid flows, your charge is generated. Along with your signature, it is unique for each person.’

Sean snorts. ‘We call that “electroskeleton”.’

‘You must be joking.’

‘No, but I guess it did start as a joke.’

He still isn’t convinced that Sean isn’t messing with him, but all right. ‘The outer contour is the arrangement of Flu— your charge on your skin. It is flexible and it is what helps to power the bodyglove.’

‘We call it—’

‘Oh no.’

‘—electroskin.’

‘ _Now_ you are messing with me.’ His previously-comfortable spot is now uncomfortable because Sean shakes with inaudible laughter.

‘No, no, I’m serious!’ Bastard.

Roy pokes him in the ribs. ‘Quit laughing.’ The lightness, the jokes take the edge off the conversation. It’s just one of those moments when they share stories about their respective— About things.

They settle again, Sean stroking his hair.

The squeaking of the wind blades and the hum of electric currents are soothing.

‘How can a Conduit have no outer contour?’ Sean asks, no lightness in his tone anymore. ‘Is it possible?’

‘Those three characteristics don’t exist separately. What it means is…’ He closes his eyes. ‘The Conduit can connect any number of things.’

‘Those they see?’

‘ _Any_ number. And not only living things. They can connect a whole dome with everything in it, a whole canyon, a whole… a planet.’

The fingers in his hair stop.

‘Roy, it isn’t… It shouldn’t be possible.’

‘It _is_ possible. And it makes many other things possible.’

‘Like magnetic levitation?’

‘Draining a whole compound. Creating a near-perpetual electric generator out of anything.’ He looks at the stars. ‘If there are any gods walking the sands, it is Conduits.’

‘This is not godhood.’

‘Isn’t it? Abominations, terrifying and unable to understand humans—’

‘Roy.’ Sean says it very softly.

‘I’m _physically_ , biologically different. I’m as far from humans as the Dust are.’

‘Roy.’

‘What, _what_?’ He sits up, pushes himself away, the tiles clattering under him. ‘Back then, when the Technomancers split their duties, those from Abundance vowed to find a way to contact Earth; those from what now is known as the Alliance would provide the external means to survive; and Aurorans were to look for ways to adapt to Mars. They went further than others. Conduits are a way to achieve that.’

‘How can tormenting someone with that,’ Sean says quietly, blue eyes intense, intensely sad, ‘help us adapt?’

Roy studies Sean’s face. Sean looks older, more mature than him—even though Roy himself isn’t that old, if one counts years. In experiences, they are probably the same age. With life expectancy adjusted, however...

‘It’s not torment.’

Sean’s chest rises with a reply, but Roy doesn’t let him. ‘It’s so easy to _be_ that. To use that. You discover you can connect ten people, then twenty, then half a hundred… Then it’s a matter of keeping count. Getting back into your head, getting yourself back is the issue.’

‘Yes,’ Sean says. ‘I saw.’

Roy slings an arm over his knees, doesn’t allow himself to dwell on this _‘I saw’._

‘A Conduit needs a trine,’ Sean says with a questioning intonation.

He hums. ‘Yes. It’s more than a matter of psychosocial stability like in any other trine. My brain… A trine contains the framework, the lattice upon which a Conduit restores their personality, let’s leave it at that. Without a trine, Conduits don’t live long.’

‘Are they… created?’

‘No. Actually, we don’t exactly know. It is genetics, but maybe environmental factors, too. There are no certain bloodlines that produce more Conduits than others, but having a Conduit somewhere in that bloodline is one of the predictors.’

‘Is that… what Generosity tried to do? To get a Conduit?’

‘And why he wanted me hunted down?’ He shrugs. ‘Maybe. He would have had to wait some years to know whether he succeeded. It manifests not right after birth.’

‘Did you know?’

‘Before I left? No. I think they suspected, but… You know how all Technomancers are. Strange. And I thought everyone felt everything all the time, like me.’

‘I’m sorry.’

He shrugs. He wants to shrug off Sean’s soft tone. ‘It’s not a disease.’

‘It’s certainly not—but you suffer, and for that, I’m sorry. I still don’t see how it helps, though.’

‘What’s the biggest threat on Mars? Aside from human stupidity.’

‘Water shortages?’

‘Nah. I mean, for everyone.’

Sean is silent for a few moments. ‘Radiation. Oh gods.’

‘Precisely.’

‘Conduits are supposed to be living—’

‘Magnetic field stabilisers or even sole generators of magnetic fields. Yeah.’

‘Oh gods. No wonder the First Great Masters fought…’

Interesting how different stories are folded throughout the years. ‘I don’t know,’ he says with a barely hidden laughter. It feels a little hysterical. ‘I think they were fine. They wouldn’t have been buried under three trees, together, if they had fought.’

‘Gods, what? The Lovers are…?’

He snorts, glances at his brother. Sean’s face is so full of wonder. ‘Yeah. Resilience, Temperance, Tenderness. Or, Ariel, Nur, Amardeep. Or…’ He clicks his tongue.

‘Three, Three and… Three?’ Sean raises his eyebrows.

He grins. ‘Funny, right? The Alliance folk like their Binary jokes. Where’d you learn it?’

‘Served with someone from the Alliance. How _you_ know it, is a more interesting question.’

‘Aurora is multilingual. Languages were part of the training. Ask Philomathy. Xe knows nine sign languages and dialects.’

Sean groans. ‘I’m never letting any of your former mentors go.’

‘I don’t think they will let you go either.’

Sean moves to him and nudges him with his shoulder, then holds the box. Roy picks the round chocolate. The shell breaks on his tongue, and the filling is spicy and warm.

‘Not letting you go either, Roy,’ Sean says quietly.

He rolls his eyes and grabs for the box. ‘You’re all mushy, Captain Mancer, I’m confiscating your chocolate.’

‘You can try,’ Sean laughs, pulling the box out of his reach.

They nearly push it off the rooftop in their wrestling, but Sean catches it at the last moment. He insists they split the chocolate evenly.

Roy doesn’t mind.

**Author's Note:**

> Will I stop working on the concept of the Conduit? Probably not.


End file.
